David wrote psalm 57 as he fled from Saul into a cave. It was a cry for mercy, a cry for God’s purpose to be fulfilled, a cry for the evidence of God’s love and His faithfulness, and a cry for David’s soul to awaken.
Listen to verse 8, “Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.”
What David is saying here is elementary, “Wake up David!” I know that is what I often feel like doing–shouting at myself to “Wake up Terry!”
When we battle God, when we turn a deaf ear to His pleas, when we ignore His purpose for our lives, it isn’t long before our soul simply goes to sleep. The voice of the Lord becomes more and more distant until finally we simply do not hear it anymore. It isn’t that He’s quit talking; it’s that we’ve become deaf to His voice.
As David was in a literal cave, pursued by his enemies, crying for God’s mercy and purpose in his life in Psalm 57, I sometimes find myself in a spiritual cave. When I do, it is a cave dug by my own disobedience, my own attitudes, and my own rebellions.
“Awake, my soul!” tells me it is time to repent and leave the cave, time to realign my attitudes with the will of God, time to admit His purpose in me and time to change.
